Five Days Older
by English4Theme
Summary: As a famous Art School Mikan couldn't understand why Yazawa would add a Psychology department. It confused her even more when one of the professors wants to use her as a muse for his "research". Reluctant at first Mikan hesitates to agree, but when her boyfriend decides to dump her she thinks of nothing better but to fall in the grasp of a sexy older man. Only for the weekend...
1. Thursday Afternoon

**AN:** _Do not own GA. Excuse the short chapters._

* * *

 **Thursday Afternoon:** 19:45

In the last hours of hot water spilling and creamer being mixed into drinks, the time was always Mikan's best friend when it starting getting dark outside. She was all too excited when the clock that sat over the sepia canvas of a coffee mug seemed to pick up speed.

"Thank you, come again!" The last customer of that hour walked off mug in hand, keys jiggling in the other. It was getting closer and closer to that point of Mikan's day when everything took a turn for the better, and she got closer and closer to giving anyone the finger if they chose to come in now.

The expresso machines hummed, relieving the brew from the day as dishes clinking and glasses clanking sounded from the kitchen in the back. Mikan decided it was best to act as if they already had turned the neon 'open' sign in the window off, impulsively wiping down the counter and tossing more dishes to the crew in the back.

Her focus gone on the late-night movie binge she was planning for the start of the weekend, since she had been given friday off and conveniently had one class scheduled for the next day that didn't start until noon, the doorbell ringing against the vintage entrance way flew in one ear and out the other. While the bits and pieces of coffee beans got swept up into the cleaning towel she was using, Mikan's mind was being swept up by sexy bare chests in one of those foreign movies she had ready on her favorites list.

Oh the sight of that handsome Alejandro, she could just-

"Hello."

Mikan jumped, swiveling around coming in eye contact with a young, dark-looking guy. Well, maybe not dark looking but the fact that his hair was jet black and he was sporting a heavy leather trenchcoat with an as equally heavy looking dark sweater, she couldn't help but think the man had a Johnny Depp thing going on. She was a little taken off guard because all- in-all, the guy was still quite...cute.

"H-hi..." She strode up to the counter, logging into the register. "Sorry about that...Lost in my thoughts, haha...you know."

The man acted as if he didn't hear one thing she said, let alone was up for hearing an excuse when he spat out his order. He didn't even bother to laugh.

"Coffee with nothing in it."

Mikan stood for a minute before processing his order in the register system. If this weird, rude of an attractive guy thought he was gonna walk into her job, less than an hour before they closed with that attitude, he had another thing coming. She simply let her anger calm itself down and handed the man his receipt. Now was not the time to be getting fired. School fees and rent...all that 'good' stuff.

"It'll be up in a sec." She let a sneer pull at her lips when he could no longer see her face. While she stared at the black liquid tumbling into the heat resistant cup thoughts of squeezing the dirty cleaning water along with the coffee plagued her mind. Of course she wouldn't think- _actually_ do- anything like that, but he didn't catch her on the best day and who knows. If the guy stops looking, she just might accidently drop the towel in the coffee pot.

She did away with her thoughts, securing the plastic lid on the cup and placed it on the counter infront of the customer.

An uneasy heavyness fell in the shop when the guy stood still, making no effort to reach for his drink. She noticed he hadn't even looked at it and was staring straight through her direction like he was upset about something she obviously made a dumb mistake about.

"Umm...here?"

The shop grew even more unsettling when his eyes actually locked onto hers. She couldn't help but feel taken aback. Not only were his eyes this deep rogue that kind of freaked her out, but his was still standing there not speaking a word. She flicked a finger, finding it strange that it felt like she was under some hold and couldn't move herself.

The heavy atmosphere finally broke when he shifted and put his hand on the counter. Still not picking up the cup but placing his hand close enough to it.

"The cardboard."

One of Mikan's wing-tipped eyebrows lifted just below her copper bangs. "Cardboard?"

"Cardboard. The Cardboard!" The guy snapped back at her.

Look, any other time if she had just gotten on her shift or was in a particularly happy mood that day she would've let that slide and respectfully asked what it was he was referring to. But today, unluckily for both of them, was not that day. After her car breaking down, having to walk to campus _and_ 15 blocks to work, failing a surprise quiz from one of her stupid professors who's barely in class and getting called out by this prissy-little-rich girl, who by the way annoys the hell out of her, she has already up there on the angry meter.

And this guy was about to have it.

"Listen you, I'm tired. I'm ready to leave, and I have no idea what you're talking about. So unless you're gonna act whatever age you look and use real descriptives so I can get whatever the hell it is that you want then you can step out of my face and walk right out that door!"

The other employee who had been working up until Mikan started yelling, stood a few feet away from his enraged coworker, gawking at the outburst. His gaze left the heated girl to the customer standing behind the counter with his hand still sitting patiently by his probably lukewarm drink.

Mikan let out a long exhale, leveling back down to some sort of calm mixed with irritation. Her eyes opened to the guy continuing to stand there blank faced, frowning and silent. Mikan threw her hands up, she gave in. Forget it.

Just before she turned around to finishing closing up the shop, and let that creep finish out his duties, a low pitched rumble came from the other side of the counter. After a few seconds went past she realized it was coming from the customer.

He was...laughing?

A disturbed look etched on Mikan's face as the guy's rumble flowed into a hearty, man chuckle.

If this guy didn't leave in about 3.5 seconds, the red button hidden underneath the register was gonna get some action for the first time since this place had been built.

"Look.." Mikan started, putting her hands infront of her chest in protection. "I don't have any money, we're closing soon and...and, yea"

That just seemed to make the guy laugh more. Mikan looked over to her coworker making a similar weirded out expression. He chose a safer route and strugged before getting back to work.

"You're good." The strange man finally chose to respond with something other than a rude address or histerical laugh.

"Excuse me?"

"No, Excuse me." Mikan had eventually lost her anger when it formed into this pure confusion. Why did this have to happen today? She never got fridays off, let alone free time to be a lazy slouch all weekend long. Why did this pathetic excuse for a Johnney Depp have to come and put all her plans on hold.

"Look..." Mikan started with a defeated sigh.

"No, no. Don't- Look here. My name is Hyuuga Nastume. I'm a professor at Yazawa, a Psychology professor."

Mikan rose another brow. "Ok?"

"I know it's...strange, but I'm conducting a study on situtional response and emotional feedback."

Mikan didn't move a muscle aside from bringing her other brow to join it's twin at the top of her forehead.

"Basically, I want you to be my muse."

She took another look at this guy. If she thought about it real hard, she still couldn't remember ever seeing this creep on campus before. Yazawa was an Art school after all. Why they decided to add miscellaneous majors like Psychology and Engineering would never make since to her. But she guessed they could be forms of Art too. Depending on how you practiced it.

Her thoughts went back to the customer, Mr. Hyuuga, who hadn't chosen to leave yet but finally start sipping at his by now cold coffee.

Aside from the strange encounter, he was a good looking man. He was tall, at least a foot taller than her, with fair skin and an average body size. Average through the heavy outerwear, she thought. Her view of his lower half was obstructed by the counter but she could tell he might've had it going on all the way down because his dark jeans slimmed on his hips pretty nicely. She noticed too that he had a belt with a gold CC buckle with one of the C's facing the opposite direction. He was snazzy she could say, but creepy she could say too.

 **l|l**


	2. Going Midnight

**AN:** _I'm gonna apologize in advance if I get lazy and put this on infinite haitus_

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 **Thursday Night:** 22:25

The same clock Mikan had been watching since she came in finally struct her time off. She bid her coworker a dramatic farewell wave, grabbing her purse from underneath the counter and stalking off into the cool fall weather. As cliched as it might be, Mikan loved the fall weather. The wind always swept her into this relaxing, carefree mode.

She took a theatrical deep breathe and let it out into a wide smile. Finally, off work. Going Home. Getting naked. Watching T.V. All the what not you did when you didn't have a care in the world.

Except...

"Good, you're off."

A digusted frown pulled at Mikan lips and her happy spirit layed down into a pit of depression. She glanced over to the tall guy standing some feet away next to an old school firebird. She could see it was some old timer vehicle but it's paint job was as sleek as it's driver, making both of them pretty attractive for some odd reason.

She tossed her apron over her shoulder and placed an irritated hand on her hip. "Why are you still here?"

The guy, Natsume he preferred to be called much to her dismay, let out a light chuckle.

"What do you mean? Waiting for my muse..." Mikan was quick to raise a finger to stop him in his tracks.

"I didn't agree to be your anything."

Natsume laughed again. She swore if he laughed one more time she was ready with the cops on speed dail.

"You said you would try it."

"I said I would _think_ about it. Where did you even get that from?"

She clutched her phone when he chuckled again. "I saw it in your eyes."

"Like hell you did." She couldn't take it anymore. She loved the weather but it was starting to get to her. The thin jacket she brought wasn't enough to keep her from shivering. Plus, she wanted to hurry and get back. Alejandro was calling. "I gotta go. See ya."

She began tredding over the mass of fallen leaves on the ground, being careful not to ruin her new sneakers. She worked too hard at that place to buy cute things only to destroy them in less than a week.

Mikan barely made it to the corner before Natsume came chasing after her. He placed one of his gloved covered hands on her shoulder causing her to jump back.

"Sorry...did you need a ride?"

She rose an eyebrow, looking at his car waiting infront of the shop, back at him and to the car again.

Mikan already knew, this guy, this Nastume character, was a stranger. He claimed to be a professor at the University but she had yet to see any evidence of that, plus he had just spent an hour waiting for her to get off work and now he was offering her a ride. If she didn't see all these red flags waving clear as day infront of her face she was ashamed to say she wasn't raised correctly.

Although the idea of not having to walk 25 blocks back to her apartment sounded glorious, she knew she couldn't. This guy was a character, and she wasn't willing to play along. "Thanks but no thanks. Goodbye."

"Whoa whoa, wait." A frightened uneasiness spilled into her gut and she could only think of horrible thoughts now. She didn't want to be one of those girls she saw on the security boards on campus, saying they were napped or violated.

"Look," She whipped out her phone, her short pink nail centimeters away from pressing the emergency dial. "I don't know what you're planning, and I don't wanna guess, but they'll have campus police here in two seconds!"

Her breathing turned heavy as she slowly backed away from Natsume, no intentions of moving her finger down from the red telephone symbol.

Natsume threw his hands up in surrender, not moving from his spot where he had chased her in hopes of calming her thoughts of him being some kind of pervert.

"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a teacher for goodness sake." Mikan scoffed, hand still putting the cops phone number on display.

"Even I know I'd go to jail in a second."

"Well, I don't wanna stick around to find out!"

"Wait wait!" Natsume quickly patted down his leather trench coat and those same dark jeans that Mikan noticed did, infact, make him look good on his lower half. But this wasn't the time to be thinking about his masculine features!

Mikan wasn't sure what kept her from making a run for it, but something about his eagerness to find whatever he was looking for and for her not to dissappear when he looked away made her wait to see. If she was wrong and he was just using this as a distraction then...at least her finger was still patiently waiting by the speed dial.

Her worries seemed to be put a little at ease when he whipped out a familiar white and green card. The plastic worn from use and peeling at the sides, but nonetheless, she recognized her school banner at the top.

Mikan squinted, glancing at Natsume then swiping the card out of his hand. She eyed him suspiciously before examining the piece of plastic. A picture of the same creep infront of her was plastered on the bottem right corner, right above his name and his label as a Professor of the Psychological and Behavioural Department. Natsume looked as dark and handsome in his photo as he did in real life. Only his picture showed no traces of his strange, inconsistant personality. Just him giving a straight faced expression to the camera.

Mikan still made sure to keep her distance when she handed him the card back. He tucked it back into whichever pocket he pulled it out of then smiled up at her.

"So..." Natsume began, opening his hands as if to say she was wrong about him, he wasn't a untrustworthy character.

"Ok, well...Still, why are you bothering me?"

He chuckled. May she remind him she still had her finger by the phone.

"It's not my intention to bother you," Mikan rose a brow. "Honestly."

"See, one of my students, Ms. Imai, suggested for my research I use her friend as my subject. You...Ms. Sakura, right? Mikan."

Mikan calmed down at the mention of Hotaru. Why wasn't this mentioned before? She nearly pissed her pants for no reason.

"Why didn't Hotaru mention this to me?"

Natsume strugged. "My guess is because she wanted me to see you in action. Well...not in action, but in your normal state of activity."

Mikan didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure whether to call up Hotaru and yell at her or yell at Natsume.

"In action? I'm confused."

"If you're calm now, which you seem to be, we can back tract and start over. Let me take you home and I'll explain everything on the way."

Mikan was too confused and tired to think about the consequences that were waving in her face about this. Deeming it was good enough that he knew her name and her friend she checked him out as ok. Besides, she had now seen proof that he did work for Yazawa, he was a professor in the psychology department and his name _was_ Natsume. She did away with her extra thoughts, nodding and following Natsume back to his car.

 **l|l**

Natsume's firebird screeched over to the side of the road. Mikan let out a huge breath she had been holding since he closed the door behind her. If he wasn't the craziest driver she had ever rode with.

Natsume sped the whole way to her building, curving around the few cars that sprinkled the night streets and barely stopping at the traffic lights. Mikan felt around for the door handle, keeping her view straight ahead. She was sure if her eyes dropped to the ground she would see more than her breath coming out of her mouth.

"T-Thanks," Mikan gulped down her sick feeling. "Thanks for the ride."

Natsume responded with a grin. Her arm nearly jabbed him when he leaned towards her direction. A little too close for comfort. But it oddly sparked Mikan's interest.

Natsume reached over past her stained work pants and popped open the glove compartment. Surprisingly, disappointment washed over Mikan as she watched him pull out a sleek black card. Mikan didn't know why she was expecting something to happen.

"Here." She eyed the anticlimactic piece of paper, taking it and looking it over. Everything about this man was sleek. Him, his car, even his business cards.

She read over His name and his services. _Natsume Hyuuga; Consultant and Creative Director_. The card listed two numbers and his office location at the bottom.

"Think over what we talked about. I have to start as soon as possible so think quickly."

Mikan nodded, gathering her things and stepping out of the vehicle.

"I'll be waiting for your response, Mikan."

She nodded again.

Mikan stood with her hand readying the door to be closed, shifting on each leg not sure whether to say something more. She apologized and slammed the door, stepping back further onto the sidewalk. Natsume sped off after she proceeded to remember her apartment building was behind them and finally stalking off to unlock the door.

Mikan examined the black card a second time as the elevator lifted her to the sixth floor. She thought back to the presumptuous man whose car she just left.

Natsume had told her he was fairly new as a professor and had to complete a research project to be promoted to a lead academic conductor. She had asked him why he wanted to be a lead conductor if he was so new, where he oh-so-proudly informed her he had "more professional things to do than teach ignorant college students".

Mikan sneered at the memory of his words.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the overbearing pitch of her ringtone. The loud chimming sprung her back to reality. She made haste to unlock her door, digging out her cell at the same time. After Natsume chose to stop giggling like a school boy she finally threw her phone in the depths of her purse.

"Hello," she answered with a relieved sigh. She hadn't figured out how to work her voicemail yet so every call was a winner.

"H-hey," An unsure voice squeaked.

"Hey, you're calling quite late." Mikan flipped the lights on in every room she stepped in.

When her caller didn't continue she stopped in her tracts. Her gaze narrowed to the phone, "What?"

There was some shuffling over the line. Mikan went over to her couch planting firmly on the edge. The edge always seemed like the best place just incase it was bad news. If she fainted from the shock her neighbors would hear.

"Ruka?"

"Listen Mikan," Ruka muttered. This couldn't be good. He was muttering. "I can't do this anymore. I'm not happy. I think I'm finished. With the relationship, I mean."

Mikan's mind flushed and she went blank. "Wh-"

"I'm sorry. Y-You...It's me not you, I mean...I'm sorry," Ruka stuttered out before she heard a click and the dial tone started talking instead of Ruka.

Frozen dumbfounded, all she could think of was the fact that she hadn't turned on the light in the living room.

 **l|l**


End file.
